Secretary of state race is setting the bar for a quality contest

What a delight the current secretary of state race is.

It has everything that a quality election contest should have — most importantly, open and accessible candidates. No one is hiding from constituents or ducking media interviews.

And Hoosiers have four genuinely good choices.

In reverse alphabetical order, to mix things up, they are Libertarian Lauri Shillings, Republican Max Engling, Democrat Beau Bayh and Lincoln Party candidate Greg Ballard. They all have varying levels of public and private sector experience to bring to the table.

And they are busy. They are actively knocking on doors, running ads, attending community events.

The quartet already had one formal debate, and another by the Indiana Debate Commission is coming up Oct. 7. There are numerous other forums and events happening around the state involving the race, which tops the Indiana ballot this year.

And they have ideas! You heard me. It’s my favorite part about a campaign: the proposals.

Two Indiana secretary of state debates planned

Mitch Daniels’ 2004 run for governor was the first major race I covered. He had a new proposal every week, whether it be using Indiana contractors more, changes to the state’s economic development structure or stronger ethics rules. He had a literal foldout roadmap that had dozens of plans, and you could mark them off as he accomplished (most of) them.

It was a true campaign platform. He created buzz and conversations among voters and other candidates in the race.

That was a high-water mark, though. Over the years, candidates have backed away from detailed policy proposals. Instead, they trot out national talking points on issues that the office doesn’t even involve. There’s been some of that in this race but at least it’s not predominant.

Ballard is leading the way. He first suggested a state-crafted and -distributed voter guide and then followed that up by pushing a nonpartisan recount commission makeup involving former judges. And this week he proposed clerk and poll worker training.

Shillings believes an overhaul of the agency’s website is needed and supports more voter education resources.

Engling wants to use the office to identify — and eliminate — so-called chameleon trucking carriers that shut down after safety violations only to reopen under a different name. He also supports closing Indiana’s primary voting system.

Bayh is pushing a comprehensive audit of the office. He supports eliminating straight-ticket voting and allowing voters to put measures on the ballot.

Many of these items would need legislative buy-in, but smaller things can be accomplished administratively.

Debate the ideas all you want. Are they too expensive? Is that an important topic? That means people are thinking.

The race is worth uplifting, as many candidates in other races around the state have no interest in doing some of this kind of work.

During the primary, we sent out more than 100 surveys to candidates for our voter guide. We are a small staff and simply can’t do that many one-on-one interviews. We got a 40% return rate.

Another round went out for our general election voter guide, and it is looking even worse. Many incumbents – but not all – refuse to fill it out. Some don’t have emails where you can reach them and don’t answer calls or direct messages.

That’s not good for anyone in our political system. And that’s why I’m so excited by the secretary of state race.